Piano-posture

How to Sit Properly at The Piano: Correct Your Posture

One cannot be a piano playing professional in a day. After the years of practice, you can reach to a level of confinement. There are several factors that depends on playing piano in a comfortable way. One of the factors is the sitting position. If you have a good posture while you are in front of the piano, no one can just stop you to be a piano playing professional.

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Piano bench height

The height of the individuals playing piano may differ. Accordingly, the piano bench must be selected. If the person is short, the piano bench must have little tall height so that the gap is easily managed. Thus, selection of right bench for piano is very important. There are adjustable piano benches in the market which can be made less and more according to the piano height.

The perfect height combination

How will you know or check whether the height of the bench is perfect or not? This is possible if there is an image where your both elbows as well as upper arm falls freely over the shoulder. Also, your forearm must be parallel to the floors. It allows the forearm to stay parallel to the floors.  There must be a distance to setup. It is the elbow which will stay slightly in front of the centre position. This is when our hand is in the neutral positions right at the keyboard.

Flexibility while playing

It is always good to maintain flexibility while you are playing the piano. While you are sitting in front of the piano board, you must keep your hand in the neutral position of the keyboard. The rigidity will make your piano playing very uncomfortable. Thus, it is always better to avoid the rigidity. This will make the environment of playing piano quite easy and convenient. This will allow you to sit properly while you are playing piano without any rigidity.

Upper arm feeling in piano playing

arm-position

When you are playing the piano, the upper arm has a feeling of getting easiness.  This should not be heavy by nay means. While you start playing piano must keep the forearm and the hand in extremely resting position. The movement become quite flexible due to this. This is when the wrist is having a good combination of the hands and the forearm. But, make sure there is no folding up and falling down sequence.

How to sit over the piano bench?

bench

Normally, we tend to sit on the front portion of the bench while playing piano. Do you know why? We become very cautious while playing piano. The need for human torso in such a position is to move right from the hip joint. But, it is important to have freedom of the hip joint while you are playing piano. But, some people tends to lean back and move their sitting positions to the back of the bench. This makes them quite relaxed and comfortable. Feeling stable is very important while you sit over the bench and play piano. The people sitting forward in the piano bench has the idea that they will allow their hip joint to get a free movement. But, you must also remember that too much of our thigh must not be on the bench. This will make our torso to force back. As a result, there will be quite difficulty in moving forward.

When is adding height to the bench necessary?

Some benches are too low. The player doesn’t get height to reach to piano. This is very true for a short height piano playing individual. Also, some of the individuals cannot feel easiness when their feet do not reach the floors. They wont feel comfort in getting perfect balance.  Do you know that even the children play piano ? Naturally, they cannot use the benches of adults. There are special stools available in the market right fir the children. Those have some special feature. Those are the ones with the shorter legs. There are other things as well which will make it perfect for the kid’s stool.

Now, sometimes those stools are very less in height. Suppose your child has grown up and he won’t be needing the stool which you bought 6 months ago. What do you do? In such a case, it will be a sheer foolishness to buy a stool again. Think of doing something to the existing stool so that it gains a height.  You can raise the height in your won way. Find something at home which can raise its height when you place it just below  the stools. It can be sturdy cardboard boxes. Marble pieces, etc can also be placed at the bottom to raise the height of the stool. But, make sure those fits well or else your kid may fall.

Top factors to consider when sitting on piano

There are three major factors which you need to consider while sitting on the piano. Those are as follows:

Height

If your height does not reach to the level where the piano keyboard is placed, it will be difficult to play the piano in a comfortable fashion. You must reach to a height where the following facts is assured:

  • Your arms rest very comfortable over the piano keys
  • Arms of the player will stay relaxed and stress free
  • The position of the arms must be horizontal to the floor
  • Slight bend of the wrist is required while playing the piano
  • Make sure the wrist must be lower than the knuckles
  • There must be a perfect fitting of the knees and the legs under the bench of the piano
  • Adjust the keyboard stand in such a way that it reaches to the correct height

Distance

Another important factor over here is known as the distance. When you are sitting in a bench and your piano keybaord is just in front of you, make sure that there is an optimal distance. It should not be very less, nor it should be too much.  The gap must be such that your hand and fingers rest comfortably over the piano keyboard. Following are tips:

  • The distance of piano player and the keyboard must be such that, it must be slightly in front of the stomach
  • Avoid the distance when the arms are fully extended.
  • Make sure the elbows are not beyond the pianist back

Posture

Your body posture is an important factor when you are playing piano sitting over a bench. Following are the conditions in such a situation.

  • You must have a straight back and shoulders in the relaxing mood
  • The head must remain straight while playing piano
  • The music sheet is placed just few meters over the piano keys. The posture must be such that the pianist can have a view of the music sheet while playing the piano.

Where to sit on bench

best-piano-posture-300x209

At the time of playing a piano, you will obviously consider sitting on a piano bench. But, even sitting on bench have certain factors to consider. Normally, we have a tendency of sitting in front of the bench.  This is when there is a mandatory factor of our torso to move towards the hip joint. You must provide enough freedom to your hip joint while sitting in a piano bench. We need to be comfortable enough so that there is no need to hold our body rigidly in one place. It is advisable not to put too much of thighs on the bench. This will force our torso back. This will however make us quite difficult to get it move from the hip joint.

How to find perfect piano bench?

Piano bench plays a great role in making each pianist play perfectly without any difficulty. Some features of the piano bench will make it perfect and easy to use for people with different height. You must have observed many piano players adjusting the height of the piano. This is done to make themselves quite comfortable while playing the piano. Following are the parameters that will make your piano bench one of the best:

Sturdy bench allows sitting in the front half

The breadth of the piano bench can be wider. But, make sure that if you sit in the front half portion of the piano bench you will feel comfortable. There are many benches which much sturdy is not that. Naturally when you come to the front edge the back legs will tend to lift. This gives a chance of falling. Thus, a sturdy bench is required.

Suitable height- feet at the floor

It will be always comfortable to play a piano if the bench in which you are sitting have an appropriate height. Too much of height will not be accepted. You must get the bench of the piano where the height will be such that you can touch the floor with your feet.  This will bring more stability while you sit over the piano bench.

Knees under keyboard

The piano bench must have a step where you can keep your feet. Also, the feet much be positioned in such a way that the knees must be parallel to your feet. Yes, you must keep the knees just under the piano keyboard. Don’t try to sit the way you sit over a work desk when you are sitting in front of piano and over the piano bench.

Height for keys

Another important factor which you must consider here is getting the right height of the keys. If you are sitting over a piano bench which is too high right from the floor, there can be an issue of pain over the upper back and the neck portion. At the same time, if you are sitting in a low height bench, there will be an issue of viewing the keyboard. The view of the keyboard will be easily reduced. Thus, the height of the piano bench must be in such a way that it is just appropriate to press the piano keys.

Top tips for good posture while sitting in front of piano

Perfect alignment

The player sitting on the piano bench must sit in such a way that his body must have a perfect alignment. The head, shoulder and hips must have a single line. This will help in getting perfect balance.

Fingers posture

While playing piano, your fingers gets the maximum strain. This is because it is with those wingers you play the  piano throughout the day. Naturally, they can pain. To avoid it, you must keep your fingers in curved position. You must also try to keep it relaxed.

Thumbs position

Also make sure that your thumbs should not be curved. Try to keep it straight. This will be relaxed. The playing can be ideally comfortable with this thumb position.

Feet resting

Your feet must be kept in a flat surface. It will be good if you can place it flat over the floor. But, this might not be always possible. Not all of us have a good height. Even the kids are engaged in piano playing. Naturally, their height won’t be sufficient to touch the ground.  What do you do in such a situation? Get a stool or a height surface which can hold the feet to a certain height for resting.

Use weight of arm

While you are playing the piano, make sure that you make use of a weight of your arm. This is very important to press the keys in a comfortable way without giving more stress to the fingers.

 Alignment of hand

Your hand is further divided into three sections. Those are fingers, wrist and elbow. Now, you must keep all 3 of these in a perfect alignment. Don’t give more stress on the wrist or elbow. This can give rise to bones and muscles getting tensed. As a result you can end up with pain. Thus, try to keep all these 3 relaxed and flexible.

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